Maude Schuyler Clay is a fifth generation Mississippian. Clay started her color portrait series Mississippi History in 1975 when she acquired her first Rolleiflex 2 camera. At the time, she was living and working in New York and paying frequent visits to her native Mississippi Delta, whose landscape and people continued to inspire her. Over the next 25 years, the project, which began as The Mississippians, evolved in part as an homage to Julia Margaret Cameron, a definitive pioneer of the art of photography. Clay’s expressive, allegorical portraits of her friends, family and other Mississippians, as well as her artful approach to capturing the essence of light, are the driving forces behind her recollection of moments of family life in Mississippi in the 1980s and 90s.

During Art for Arts Sake this annual arts walk event in the downtown arts district, the Ogden Museum will open Maude Schuyler Clay: Mississippi History. Admission is free, and includes cash bars and entertainment by DJ Ed Maxmillion.

Maude Schuyler Clay will lead a gallery talk of her exhibition Mississippi History followed by a question and answer session. She will be joined by the Ogden Museum’s Curator of Photography Richard McCabe. After the gallery talk Maude Schuyler Clay will be present to sign copies of her book, Mississippi History, published by Steidl in 2015. This event will take place on December 11 from 3-5pm.